Adelaide Contemporary Experimental

Adelaide Contemporary Experimental Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) is South Australia’s leading independent contemporary vis

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Aidan Hughes⁠Between May 1, 1976 and June 30, 1976, New York artist Poppy J...
19/06/2026

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Aidan Hughes
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Between May 1, 1976 and June 30, 1976, New York artist Poppy Johnson performed an artwork that involved her writing for 3 hours every day. Aidan Hughes responds directly to Johnson by adopting the structure to his own
act of sustained writing. Beginning on 22 April 2026, Hughes continued this daily practice, completing his final 3 hour session at ACE on 23 May. Each word produced is printed and left on his desk, becoming an accumulated record for visitors to encounter. Johnson also shared the outcomes of her original performance, with her resultant artist book currently on display at Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA) in the companion exhibition, 'Anarchive: knowledge follows form'.

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Images: 'Anarchive: Digesting The World', event documentation, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artists – V Barratt + Grace Marlow with Andrea Illés⁠⁠'All we leave you are your mem...
18/06/2026

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artists – V Barratt + Grace Marlow with Andrea Illés⁠
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'All we leave you are your memories' (Yellow Pages adverrtisement, Deen Brothers, Brisbane, 1983)⁠
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In Brisbane, in the early hours of 7th November 1982, the Deen Brothers’ wrecking ball demolished by stealth the Cloudland Ballroom. Their infamous ad became the archive, beloved almost as much as the building itself. It quietly metabolised across time into something more than document, less than monument. Nobody decided it was important. It just got carried. This is what the body knows that the institution does not. That carrying is its own form of curation.⁠
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'The teeth of time' holds two q***r archives. Different formations. Different griefs. Different histories of what a life could cost, could become, could be made legible as. But sharing the same couch, something passes between two bodies in a room. Knowledge moves through proximity and touch and there is a slow dissolution of the boundary between whose memories are whose.⁠
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The institution has no category for this transmission. In the governance of significance, the institution decides: are you history or are you excrement? Most of us are excrement. Against the cold economy of the institutional storeroom, The teeth of time proposes the joyful rot of the living archive.⁠
Mites welcome. Detritus honoured. Forgetting accorded the dignity it is due. The remainder is alive and still fermenting.⁠
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Come in.⁠
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Eat.⁠
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– V Barratt and Grace Marlow⁠
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Image 1-3: Opening Celebrations: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

Image 4–5: Performance Rehearsals: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Jingwei Bu⁠⁠'Sipping Piece' is a durational performance centred on the⁠ rep...
17/06/2026

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Jingwei Bu⁠
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'Sipping Piece' is a durational performance centred on the⁠ repetitive act of drinking, in which the artist slowly sips from⁠ vessels of tea and red wine while her vision is obscured.⁠ “[Sipping Piece] responds to living in a fast-paced world⁠ shaped by constant exposure to information, media, and⁠ competing narratives. Images, news, and opinions circulate⁠ rapidly, often reaching us before there is time to reflect,⁠ verify, or fully understand their impact.”⁠
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Positioned on a single plinth, the body becomes the primary⁠ site through which the work unfolds, drawing attention⁠ to processes of intake, accumulation, and residue. The⁠ controlled pace of the action stands in contrast to the rapid⁠ circulation of information and imagery in contemporary life,⁠ redirecting focus from what is immediately visible to what is⁠ gradually absorbed. Over the course of the performance and⁠ subsequent presentation, traces of the act remain as material⁠ evidence, extending the work beyond the live moment.⁠
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Image: 'Anarchive: Digesting The World', event documentation, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Troy-Anthony⁠ Baylis⁠⁠'The Mourning After' deals with the aftermath of the ...
16/06/2026

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Troy-Anthony⁠ Baylis⁠
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'The Mourning After' deals with the aftermath of the AIDS⁠
pandemic and the association of gay bodies with disease,⁠
contagion, and death. Baylis’ video performance offers a⁠
cathartic ritual steeped in grief, mourning and love.⁠
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“I am a survivor of the AIDS pandemic that wiped out elders⁠
and peers of my generation. My body carries deep grief and⁠
anxiety. I know I am not alone. This living-grief transcends⁠
Aboriginality, but as a q***r-Aboriginal person of mixed⁠
appearances, mixed geographies, and first-generation⁠
descendant of Stolen Generations, the grief feels entwined,⁠
nuanced, inside my body. Truth be told, if I wasn’t able to⁠
express it in a non-violent artistic way I’m not sure I would⁠
have capacity to survive.”⁠
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Image 1–2: Opening Celebrations: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.
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Image 3: ‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ installation view, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Sam Roberts.

Troy-Anthony Baylis is supported by City of Adelaide.

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Shenshen⁠ Zheng⁠⁠'The Air Will Change 时空 · 菹味' unfolds as a slow transforma...
15/06/2026

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Shenshen⁠ Zheng⁠
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'The Air Will Change 时空 · 菹味' unfolds as a slow transformation. It emerges from nostalgia rooted in childhood memory and the food traditions of Northeast China: “I am reflecting on the often-overlooked labour of mothers and grandmothers” across different generations and different cultural contexts. The large, hand-built ceramic vessel is for fermenting cabbage. Formed from clay fortified with paper pulp, corn husk, and flax fibre, the plant materials burn away in the kiln, while contributing to the structure of the work, echoing forms of unseen but essential labour often⁠
performed by women, particularly mothers. The installation extends beyond the vessel through edible plants, scent, and moments of activation, including shared food practices across the exhibition. Visitors are invited to engage through touch and interaction, encountering textures and material⁠
traces. Elements can be handled and activated, including lifting the lid, handling ceramic fragments and lamb knuckles, or imprinting a recipe page with ceramic stamps, while an accompanying artist book extends these gestures through recipe-reading and reflection.⁠
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Image 1 and 3: Opening Celebrations: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.
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Image 2: ‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ installation view, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Sam Roberts.
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Image 4–5: 'Anarchive: Digesting The World', event documentation, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Tikari Rigney⁠⁠For 'Cubicle Confessional', Rigney invites audiences to unbu...
14/06/2026

‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ exhibiting artist – Tikari Rigney⁠
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For 'Cubicle Confessional', Rigney invites audiences to unburden themselves. They offer an invitation to an intimate conversation to be experienced while sitting on a toilet and speaking through a custom ‘glory hole’ connecting the two small cubicles of their installation. The work develops Rigney’s ongoing concern with the possibilities of intimacy⁠
and vulnerability in shared experiences where “spaces to share, confide and build connections are important. This work is a reflection of nights out, finding camaraderie in the toilets, confessions in the dark and closeness in openness.”⁠
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Image 1: Tikari Rigney (2026), Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography Andre Castellucci.
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Image 2–3: Opening Celebrations: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.
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Image 4–5: ‘Anarchive: Gut-feeling’ installation view, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Sam Roberts.

We're open⁠!⁠ 'Anarchive: Gut feeling'⁠⁠Visit us ⁠Tue—Sat⁠11am—4pm⁠⁠⁠⁠The Anarchive project invites lively conversation ...
12/06/2026

We're open⁠!⁠ 'Anarchive: Gut feeling'⁠
⁠
Visit us ⁠
Tue—Sat⁠
11am—4pm⁠⁠
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⁠The Anarchive project invites lively conversation with a radical past. Across ACE and FUMA, twelve new artist commissions are presented, alongside works from South Australia’s extraordinary history as an epicentre of “post-object” art practice. A special edition of Artlink acts as an extended reader – bringing a critical eye to experimental art then and now.⁠
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Images: Opening Celebrations: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

Join us for 'FELTcinema II: ACE Collab⁠'⁠⁠Presented in partnership with , 'FELTcinema II' brings together a program of i...
11/06/2026

Join us for 'FELTcinema II: ACE Collab⁠'⁠
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Presented in partnership with , 'FELTcinema II' brings together a program of independent and experimental film and video works, screened across The Mercury Cinema and ACE.⁠
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When: Saturday 1 August, from 5.30pm⁠
Where: The Mercury Cinema + ACE, Lion Arts Centre, Kaurna Yarta⁠
RSVP: https://ace.gallery/whats-on/live-programs/feltcinema-ii
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Applications are currently open for filmmakers and video artists interested in presenting work as part of the program. Visit FELTspace for submission details. Applications close 6 July.
Apply: https://www.feltspace.org/feltcinema-ii-ace-collab-2026-callout

Thank you to everyone who joined us last Saturday for the 'Early Career Forum + Self-Archiving Session'.⁠⁠Special thanks...
11/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us last Saturday for the 'Early Career Forum + Self-Archiving Session'.⁠
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Special thanks to our panellists, Ivan Gabriel, Caity Reynolds and Danni Zuvela for an engaging and thoughtful discussion, and for generously sharing their experiences with our community.⁠
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Images: 'Early Career Forum + Self-Archiving Session' event documentation, 2026, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Thomas McCammon.

Experience 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' through touch. ⁠⁠Our tactile display invites visitors to explore key forms, material...
10/06/2026

Experience 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' through touch. ⁠
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Our tactile display invites visitors to explore key forms, materials and ideas from the exhibition through physical interaction.⁠
Please touch.⁠
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'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' is in the gallery until 27 June.⁠

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Images: Opening Celebrations: 'Anarchive: Gut-feeling' (2026), event documentation, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Lana Adams.

⁠The Anarchive project invites lively conversation with a radical past. Across ACE and FUMA, twelve new artist commissions are presented, alongside works from South Australia’s extraordinary history as an epicentre of “post-object” art practice. A special edition of Artlink acts as an extended reader – bringing a critical eye to experimental art then and now.

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Lion Arts Centre, North Terrace
Adelaide, SA
5000

Opening Hours

Tuesday 11am - 4pm
Wednesday 11am - 4pm
Thursday 11am - 4pm
Friday 11am - 4pm
Saturday 11am - 4pm

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